The NCAA Needs to Cancel the Penn State Football Season: A Professor’s Opinion

As we begin to see deeper into the magnitude of the cover up at Penn State it is becoming obvious that the NCAA must do the right thing and cancel the remainder of the Penn State football season.

An organization that has the precedent of handing down tough punishments for too many text messages, improper discounts on tattoos, and pawning Big Ten championship rings for macaroni and cheese must respond with the same aggressive spirit for a crime that is flat out evil. In 2000, after allegations of hazing and a reported cover up by the players, the University of Vermont cancelled its hockey season when they had 15 games left in Division I of the Eastern College Athletic Conference.

If allegations of one freshman being mistreated sexually led to the devastating end of a season for so many athletes, it would be hard to expect less of Penn State or the NCAA when an organization allows for so many young people to be hurt over a decade. Joe Paterno knew of the problems and still publicly and privately supported The Second Mile as a spokesperson and board member after being well aware of coach Jerry Sandusky's propensity to take advantage of boys while still allowing him to use Penn State facilities as though he was an honored retiree. How does that compare with the Middlebury College suspending the rest of this current season for girls smearing ketchup on each other and possibly worse? As an anti hazing educator, I do not mean to belittle the seriousness of hazing, however these examples highlight the gravity of this situation.

As an author of a text book on violence in sport and a professor who teaches ethics and law to college students, I believe it is important that we make this a learning moment for the next generation of coaches. Penn State and the NCAA need to send a message that winning and making money by hosting Nebraska on ESPN one more time is not as important as doing the right thing morally. The court of popular opinion has already shown us that all of the pride that comes with the many wins Penn State earned have been wasted as the schools brand equity continues to fall of the map as the sanctity of college football has been rocked to its core by a epidemic of poor decisions and inaction by men of supposed high character.

I attended the NCAA summit to address violence on campus this past spring and President Emmert was quoted as saying, "I don't know a campus in the country that hasn't tried from one degree or another to combat this issue. It has special resonance for us in intercollegiate athletics and we want to make sure we're doing all that we can." Despite his personal disgust with the details of this milestone case on sexual violence on campus, the NCAA still claims to be waiting to see how the legal process goes before stepping in. I believe that is what Joe Paterno said too, right before he was fired? I believe President Emmert will make the right decision, and hopefully before the victims turn on ESPN this Saturday.

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